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The University Daily Kansan
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THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Monday. December 4,2000
Sports: The women's basketball team fell short of winning the KU Credit Union Jayhawk Classic Saturday.
See page 1B
Inside: Proposal could require earlier deadline for fee payment. SEE PAGE 3A
(USPS 650-640) · VOL.111 NO.63 For comments, contact Nathan Willis or Chris Borniger at 864-4810 or e-mail editor@kansan.com
KARLTON 15
WWW.KANSAN.COM
KU student in coma after alley altercation
By Lauren Brandenburg and Kursten Phelps
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writers
Two unidentified males beat a KU student into a coma downtown early Friday morning.
coma downtown early Friday morning
Lawrence Police Sgt. Mike Patrick said Micah Ryan Gaches, a 21-year-old student from Lenexa, was standing with three friends in a parking lot in the 1000 block of Vermont Street between 1:50 and 2 a.m. Friday when he was hit and kicked by the two men until he was unconscious.
Patrick said that the victim was flown to the University of Kansas Medical Center and was in a coma as of Friday.
conna and that Gaches and his friends had been in the parking lot when another male made a derogatory comment about a female in Gaches' group of friends. A male that was with Gaches hit the man and knocked him unconscious.
knocked him unconscious.
"The man woke up mad and said he'd be back," Pattrick said.
A car pulled up in the alley a few minutes later, and two unidentified males asked who had hit their friend. Without waiting for a response, Patrick said, they began to hit and kick Gaches.
A 19-year-old KU student, who asked that his name not be printed, said he witnessed the altercation.
"The guy just pulled up, got out of the car and just started fighting," he said. "It was on the other side of street from the Granada behind the back alley."
The witness said he didn't know either the victim or the men who beat him.
"They just came out and started swinging," the witness said. "They beat the crap out of him. It was bad."
The witness said he went across the street and asked someone to dial 911.
"I don't know why someone would just come out and jump somebody," he said. "It's messed up."
Patrick said that the witnesses could not describe the suspects. Police only know that they were driving a white car, he said.
More minority freshmen enrolled at University
— Edited by Clay McCuistion
Total minority enrollment drops; recruiting planned
Melissa Carr/KANSAN
By Leita Schultes
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
Destiney Maxwell is happy at the University of Kansas. An African American, the Kansas City, Kan., freshman said that she chose the University because it "had something to offer" and that she was not intimidated by its low minority enrollment.
But she knows that some students of color shy away from KU when it comes to college choices, and she thinks the lack of campus diversity has something to do with it.
people. This attitude is one that KU recruiters say they are working to overcome. They have met with some success, as shown by this fall's 13.9 percent increase in the number of first-time minority freshmen.
"I think maybe two reasons," she said. "One is that they just aren't looking at KU, and two is they look at it and say. I don't want to go to school with no white people; I've heard it before."
And they are working to bring that number up again.
that number upgrades.
Alan Cerveny, director of admissions, said one example was KU's proposal for $250,000 from the Coke Foundation for minority scholarships, which could be offered as early as next fall.
But petention is a more difficult battle. Minorities made up only 8.9 percent of the student body this fall — down from 9.1 percent in 1999 and 9.3 percent in 1998.
It's a problem that concerns everyone involved — administrators, current students and even KU alumni.
Being a successful school means being a diverse school, said Steve Ellison, the 1989 KU graduate who is now a finance manager for a Fortune 500 company in Detroit and occasionally helps recruit college students.
That's something that is important at the college level, he said, but even more so in the business world, where companies like his heavily recruit talented minority students.
Ellison, an African American, said ethnic diversity led to intellectual diversity.
"I do think a diverse campus is
critical to our success," Cerveny said, adding that college was a place to challenge beliefs and change perspectives. "I think learning takes place outside the classroom as well as inside."
"You do face things," she said, remembering a class earlier this semester when the white teacher discussed an African-American issue.
EIIison suggested increased scholarship money as a way to improve that diversity.
Although Maxwell agreed that would help, she said there were a number of reasons minority students left KU.
There was only one other African-American student in the room, Maxwell said, and though she understood the difficulty of the teacher's position, she said she was offended.
See UNIVERSITY on page 2A
Strummin' tunes
Ghosty's Mark Hurst, Philadelphia freshman, continues to play after breaking a string on his bass guitar. Hurst, along with bandmates Andrew Conner, Sioux Falls, S.D., sophomore, and Richard Gintowt, Chicago sopho-more, opened the World AIDS Day Band Benefit on Friday at Hashinger Hall to benefit the Douglas County AIDS project. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
CLAS graduates in demand
New study shows growing opportunities for liberal arts majors
By Jennifer Valadez writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Job prospects haven't been this good for liberal arts graduates in years.
It's great news for the 13,999 students at the University of Kansas — 54 percent of the 25,920 students on campus — pursuing liberal arts degrees.
ings of all kinds.
Among the reasons is the fact that the earlier-than-predicted retirements of the oldest baby boomers have created job open-
Liberal arts graduates can expect to be more fervently sought after this year and to be offered better salaries, according to the 30th annual recruiting trends survey conducted by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.
Also, with the high-tech industry booming, some employers are changing their attitudes about liberal arts majors, said Terri LaMarco, associate director for employer relations at the University of Michigan.
James Abraham, Lenexa senior, said he had heard talk of the trend toward job prospects for liberal arts graduates and found it comforting.
orting.
"I've heard from a lot of people that they would much rather hire a liberal arts student because they can think more creatively and that they would not need as much instruction as others would," he said.
sad.
A total of 380 employers, primarily in the manufacturing and professional services fields, responded to the survey that was released Friday.
Continuing a four-year period of frenzied growth, the job market for students receiving undergraduate or advanced degrees of any kind in 2001 will expand 6 percent to 10 percent compared with the
year before, the survey found. It gave no breakdown for those with liberal arts degrees.
Much of the expansion will take place at companies with more than 3,500 employees. Those corporations are expected to expand hiring by 66 percent, an increase that will cross all degree levels.
Last year, large companies reported that they planned to expand hiring by 21 percent.
Graduates at the more modest end of the pay scale, such as liberal arts majors, will see their average starting salaries push into the lower $30,000s.
lower $200.00
Rosie Lopez, Lyons senior, said that she had heard that employers were looking for liberal arts students because they tend to have broader experiences.
"It seems like a lot of people look down on liberal arts degrees like they're nothing, when they really are, and now those graduates have the opportunity prove that they do have something," she said.
— The Associated Press contributed to this story.
- Edited by Megan Phelps
Many students find sleep difficult to come by and resort to sleeping pills in order to catch the much-needed rest. Anxiety, depression, medications and poor sleeping habits can contribute to insomnia. Photo illustration by Matt J. Daugherty/KANSAN
Insomnia keeps many students awake
By Melissa Davis
writer @kanson.com
Kanson staff writer
With finals around the corner and late-night cramming sessions becoming the norm, some students are not having trouble staying awake, but instead falling asleep.
instruction Haring wrote. John Wade, counselor at Counseling and Physiological Services (CAPS), said many things could contribute to problems people have trying to fall asleep.
Factors include too much caffeine, or stress, anxiety, depression, medications or poor sleeping habits, he said.
John Lawrence, Lenexa junior, said he had trouble falling asleep at night because a student lifestyle had thrown his sleep pattern off.
"Sometimes I get to sleep at 4 a.m. other times 10," he said. "It comes with being a student and studying."
Lawrence said that he used Melatonin, an herbal sleep aid, to catch some extra sleep hours.
However, Wade said that falling asleep naturally is always better.
"It works," he said. "I take it half an hour before I go to sleep if I know that I will only be getting five to six hours and I want to feel rested."
Melatonin is a hormone that the body produces and helps the body sleep.
Wade said that a lack of sleep and inducing sleep by certain measures, such as with the help of drugs or alcohol, could make people more susceptible to illnesses and could have an effect on quality of life.
"People should be cautious when using any睡 aid," he said.
He suggested that people having trouble sleeping could try a number of things to sleep longer and better at night.
"Studies show that someone who is sleeping under the influence of alcohol is indirectly not getting enough sleep and their immune system could be compromised." Wade said.
"Exercise is important," Wade said.
"If someone is physically tired, then it
is easier to fall asleep."
He suggested that people limit nap times as well as alcohol and caffeine consumption. He also recommended that people avoid lying in bed if they couldn't sleep.
"If you spend hours and hours in bed and can't sleep, get up and do something," Wade said. "If someone is laying awake in bed, than they start to associate bed with being awake instead of sleeping."
Wade said CAPS saw many students that complained of sleeplessness.
.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleeplessness and insomnia effect many people nationally.
ina direct many of their recent study by the National Sleep Foundation found that 48 percent of Americans reported insomnia occasionally, while 22 percent experienced insomnia every or almost every night.
The report also found that people with insomnia are four times more likely to suffer from depression than people who sleep well.
Edited by J. R. Mendosa